Booming city, leaking network

If the 1.5 million motorbikes that cram the streets of Ho Chi Minh City everyday queued one behind the other, they would still cover less than one tenth of the local water distribution network, which serves more than eight million residents and stretches around 33,000 kilometers.

In just 50 years, Ho Chi Minh City has transformed from a simple economy based on fishing into the economic heart of Vietnam and the country’s largest city. In the 1960s only five percent of the Vietnamese population lived in cities - the number has grown to 33 percent today, as people are attracted by higher quality living conditions and job opportunities. It is a trend that sees the Ho Chi Minh City’s boundaries expand by four percent each year.